Meet The Incoming Kellogg Class of 2017

Adanna Ukah

Adanna Ukah

Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management

Hometown: Iowa City, IA (Moved to Kellogg from Boston, MA)

Undergraduate School and Major: Yale, Political Science

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation: Manager, Fellowship Recruitment – Education Pioneers; Senior Associate – ConnectEDU

Recalling your own experience, what advice do you have for applicants who are preparing for either the GMAT or the GRE?

  • Find an Accountability Partner. I mostly studied solo, but had regular email and phone check-ins with another friend who was also studying for GMAT. We kept a Google Doc that tracked our hours, which concepts we worked on, what we got wrong, practice test scores, etc. It was a good way to stay motivated and jointly monitor our progress. 
  • Block Your Calendar for daily study time, and hold chunks of time on weekends for practice tests and post-test review. GMAT practice is time-consuming, but it is easier if you get reminders on your phone. That way, you can plan ahead for a few weekends or weeknights off or squeeze in time in the morning, during layovers, or lunch.

Based on your own selection process, what advice do you have for applicants who are trying to draw up a list of target schools to which to apply? 

  • Talk to Students/Alumni. I used LinkedIn, friends, and my undergrad alumni network to learn about schools—most people will happily share the bright and not-so-bright sides of things, info on the social scene, and recruiting if you have a few questions and done some research ahead of time. Many of these people will also offer to help with interview prep.
  • Be Honest about where you want to live; which learning style will work best given your pre-MBA professional/academic experience and career goals, and how vibe and culture plays in. There are lots of great reasons to go to business school, but the programs vary widely. Your personal preferences and development areas should drive your target school list.

What advice do you have for applicants in actually applying to a school, writing essays, doing admission interviews, and getting recommenders to write letters on your behalf? 

  • Recommendations and Applications: Ask for recs early so you can provide supporting documents (past performance reviews, old projects, etc.) and not stress about 11th hour submissions. When the applications open, record the deadlines (including time zone), review all of the little boxes/short questions, and write down the prompts and word count limits so you can make sure you are not duplicating info or filling in important content last minute.
  • Essays: Keep track of all your outlines and drafts for behavioral interview prep and ask a few people (e.g. one non-work friend, one MBA or colleague, one person who doesn’t know you well) to read for the basics (grammar/spelling/clarity/voice). Don’t go overboard soliciting feedback because it can be frustrating and it is your statement!

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? 

  • Admissions/Recruitment Process: One can tell a lot about a school by the way it recruits and admits a class; how interviews are run; how “open” or opaque the admissions team is; and how personalized communications are. Everyone I met from Kellogg was incredibly organized, grounded, and warm—this directly ties to my pre-matriculation experience with the admits website, club outreach, pre-MBA coursework, and career prep. Kellogg was clearly equipped to make significant, individualized investments in its students and made me feel confident that joining the community would be worth it.
  • Student-Driven Culture. Kellogg students are hyper-involved. Our pre-orientation (KWEST) trips are led by second-years; diversity and admit weekends are fully student-run; and the student association (KSA) has a visible impact on the general management program. It is evident that administrators, faculty, and students are putting just as much into the school as they are taking out. The community and “all-in” vibe I got when I visited was a huge plus.
  • Growth/Social Learning Focus: Kellogg’s curriculum and brand was best aligned to the type of business leader I hope to become long-term. Before business school, I worked in education (startup/non-profit)—I prefer work environments that are constantly evolving and highly dependent on the failure or success of interpersonal interactions. Kellogg touts its focus on collaboration, public statesmanship, professional agility, and customer/end-user analytics and has, for a long time, developed leaders with the skills I’ll need to have a strong career.

What would you ultimately like to achieve before you graduate? 

  • A Career Switch for me. Business school is about landing a job that I could never get otherwise, given my undergraduate area of focus and pre-MBA experience, so I’m excited to recruit for a totally different function or industry and test it out next summer.
  • Personal and Professional Organization and prioritization are two areas where I could use some work. I hope to spend time in graduate school developing better, more sustainable work-life balance habits and practice managing my calendar and commitments.
  • Academic Proficiency in any and all things that the general management curriculum has to offer. All of my pre-MBA experience qualifies as “non-traditional” and I am definitely more of a poet than a quant, so I’m expecting a steep learning curve for some of the core classes.

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